An ophthalmic apparatus includes an examination optical system for examining (measuring, observing, or photographing) an eye of an examinee and a monitor fixed in front of a main unit of the apparatus to display an image of the examinee's eye (hereinafter, referred to as a photographed image) captured by a camera (a photographing means). An examiner performs alignment between the examination optical system and the examinee's eye by operation of a joystick (an operation member) or the like while observing the photographed image displayed on the monitor. Further, there is known an apparatus provided with a monitor having a touch panel function so that various functions are set on the touch panel (JP 2003-235810 A).
In a conventional ophthalmic apparatus, a monitor is fixed in an almost vertical state (including a little tilted state) with respect to an installation plane (an examiner's side) of the main unit of the apparatus in order to make the photographed image displayed on the monitor easily viewable to an examiner who is sitting. Accordingly, if the examinee opens his/her eyelids sufficiently wide, the examiner in a sitting position can perform an examination while observing the photographed image displayed on the monitor. On the other hand, if the examinee does not open his/her eyelids wide, the examiner has to perform the examination by extending his/her arm to lift up the examinee's eyelid with examiner's fingers while observing the front monitor of the apparatus. In this case, the examiner in the sitting position is forced to take an unnatural posture and could not easily operate the apparatus for ophthalmic examinations.
Therefore, the monitor is rotatably attached to the main unit of the apparatus. The monitor is configured to be tilted from an almost vertical position with respect to an installation plane of the apparatus main unit to an almost horizontal position in which a display screen of the monitor is turned upward. This makes it possible to facilitate observation of the photographed image displayed on the monitor irrespective of the differences in examiner's position, sitting or standing. For instance, the monitor is rotatably attached to the apparatus main unit via a free stop hinge. Thus, when a predetermined force or more is applied on the monitor, the monitor is made tilt and swing. Under no force, the monitor is kept at a predetermined tilt angle by a frictional force of a hinge (JP 2006-26096 A).